The Scout Report - April 14, 2000

April 14, 2000

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.

"The Vietnam War Declassification Project"http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/vietnam/vietnam.htm
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh and Saigon, this month the Ford Presidential Library released nearly 30,000 pages of newly declassified material concerning the Vietnam War. Most of the documents "are from the White House offices of national security advisers Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft or from the files of National Security Council staff. Included are President Ford's 'Country Files' for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos; a 'Backchannel' collection of especially sensitive messages; and 'Memcons,' transcript-like memoranda of high level conversations." At the site, users can view a list of topics covered by the recently opened documents and the Library's core holdings on Vietnam, read a press release, and of course, view the full text of a number of selected documents as well as some photos. The majority of documents are offered as page images, and include Henry Kissinger's cable informing Saigon of President Ford's decision to evacuate, Helicopter pilot radio transmissions during the evacuation, Cabinet meeting minutes, National Security Council meeting minutes, General Fred C. Weyand's Vietnam Assessment Report of April 4, 1975, and materials related to the Mayaguez Incident, among others. While this release will certainly grab the attention of scholars and researchers, almost anyone interested in the waning days of American involvement in Vietnam will find multiple items of interest. [MD][Back to Contents]

Behavioral & Brain Sciences (BBS)http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/bbs/
Provided by Cambridge University Press, Behavioral & Brain Sciences (BBS) is an international, interdisciplinary journal of "open peer commentary." This interesting Website highlights "open science" in a way that many practitioners will find inspiring. Specifically, the Website offers full-text of important and controversial interdisciplinary "target articles" in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and philosophy. These "target articles" are "unedited penultimate drafts of BBS target articles that have been accepted for publication" or are already published (since 1993), accompanied by 1,000-word commentaries (analytical critiques) that are co-published with each article, along with the author's response to each. Users may search target articles by subject (BBS keyword) and browse full-text of all returns. Final published versions of target articles and their accompanying commentaries and author responses are available through Cambridge University Press. [LXP][Back to Contents]

Occupational Outlook Handbook 2000-2001 [.pdf]http://stats.bls.gov/ocohome.htm
The latest edition of this biannual handbook from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (last reviewed in the March 20, 1998 Scout Report) offers a wealth of career information for a wide range of occupations, including a brief review of important features and "what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects." Users can access this information (offered in HTML and .pdf formats) in three ways: by conducting a keyword search for a specific occupation, by browsing an "occupational cluster," or by browsing a listing of all occupations in alphabetical order. The Handbook remains an excellent source of relevant, condensed, and updated occupational information. [MD][Back to Contents]

Encyclopedia Disease Reference -- NLMhttp://medlineplus.adam.com/
MEDLINEplushttp://medlineplus.gov/
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) (first reviewed in the July 18, 1997 Scout Report) has recently added the adam.com medical encyclopedia to its popular consumer health resource MEDLINEplus. Accessed via the above URL or from the Medical Encyclopedia tab at the main MEDLINE site, the encyclopedia contains over 4,000 articles and medical images organized in eight topical sections: Disease, Injury, Nutrition, Poison, Special, Surgery, Symptoms, and Tests. Users can browse the encyclopedia entries alphabetically within each of the eight areas. Some entries are a bit brief, but most contain images and cross-references to related entries. Overall, this is an excellent resource for both health professionals and consumers. [JEB][MD][Back to Contents]

Annual Report Galleryhttp://www.reportgallery.com/
Provided by Cornerstone Investor Relations, this site links to over 2,200 Annual Reports, covering the majority of the Fortune 500 companies. These are listed alphabetically, with a link to the company's main site, the site featuring its annual report, and a Snap Shot (with broker recommendations) of the company created by the Annual Report Gallery. Companies can add a link to the Annual Report free of charge. Despite the advertisements and a thoroughly annoying and completely unhelpful border graphic that eats up a good portion of your browser window, the site is an easy-to-use resource for finding Annual Reports. [MD][Back to Contents]

Irving v. Lipstadt: The Judgement -- Nizkor Projecthttp://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/i/irving-david/judgment-00-00.html
On Tuesday, British High Court Judge Charles Gray issued a scathing ruling in the libel trial of David Irving versus Deborah Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin UK (see the March 10, 2000 Scout Report). Deciding firmly in the defendants's (Lipstadt and Penguin) favor, Gray described Irving as "a racist, an anti-Semite and an active Holocaust denier." Irving had brought the libel action because he claimed that Lipstadt's characterization of him as "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial" in a 1994 book damaged his reputation and threatened his livelihood. In his 300-page decision, Judge Gray ruled that this characterization was, in fact, justified. Users can read the full text of the decision in HTML format at the Nizkor Project Website. [MD][Back to Contents]

Noble Foundation Plant Image Galleryhttp://www.noble.org/imagegallery/
Provided by the Noble Foundation, a charitable foundation located in Ardmore, Oklahoma that focuses on agriculture and plant biology, this site contains images of over 600 vascular plants native primarily to the Oklahoma-Texas region. Offered as an educational tool for botanists, natural resource managers, and students, the site divides the images into three main categories: Grasses & grasslike plants; Forbs; and Trees, shrubs & woody vines. Within each, users can browse by common name, scientific name, or via a family or tribe index. Entries include a medium-sized image with some close-up thumbnails and information on species, family, longevity, season, origin, height, and flowers. A keyword/ natural language search engine that indexes the entire database is also available. Overall, this is a clean, fast-loading useful resource. [MD][Back to Contents]

Organized Crime and Corruption Bibliographic Databasehttp://www.yorku.ca/nathanson/search.htm
Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruptionhttp://www.yorku.ca/nathanson/default.htm
Based at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, the Nathanson Centre draws together a community of scholars and "facilitates the development of multi-disciplinary academic expertise relating to organized crime and corruption." As part of that mission, it offers this bibliographic database. Searchable by author, title, keyword, or all three, the database returns author names, titles, sources, and abstracts of varying length (some quite long). Search returns are not numbered, though they are listed in chronological order, and some include links to the full text (though many of these links were broken at the time of review). Additional resources at the main page include several recent publications, a bibliography on organized crime in North America (1998), and a collection of briefly-annotated links. [MD][Back to Contents]

Lost Art Internet Databasehttp://www.lostart.de/
Launched on April 10, the Lost Art Internet Database is a collaborative project of the Federal Government of Germany and its Federal States ("Lander"). The site "registers cultural goods which were transported or stolen because of persecution, especially of Jewish citizens, as a result of World War II or as a result of National Socialism." At the site users can currently conduct simple or advanced searches of two areas of the database: Public Losses and Remaining Stock CCP. Alternatively, users can search both simultaneously via the Global Search function. Search returns for the former include title, type of object, whether or not it was a war loss, destroyed, or restituted, and a contact for further information. Those for the latter include title, artist, material, measures, purchase, borrower, and inventory number. Background and additional information on the project as a whole and the currently available content are provided. Please note that the site is still under extensive construction and more content is forthcoming. Additions planned for the near future include a "Fremdbesitz" area of the database that will list objects, regardless of their location, that are not in the owner's hands or are without provenance, and an expanded Other Countries section that may include data from other countries. [MD][Back to Contents]

UNESCO Photobank Online Image Databasehttp://www2.unesco.org/photobank/
UNESCO now offers this database of over 10,000 images, dating back to 1946, depicting subjects related to UNESCO's activities: education, food relief, and preserving culture. The search interface provides boxes for users to enter subject and keyword terms as free text, while region, country, place, theme, year or photographer can be selected from pull down menus. Combining years with other terms proved largely unsuccessful, and the photographer menu is almost too long to be useable, but using one set of terms at a time retrieved more choices. For example, selecting Bosnia-Herzegovina from the country menu returned four recent pictures including buildings damaged by war and shipments of food arriving. Using adult literacy as a search key retrieved seven pictures from Ecuador, showing students reading by lamplight and a woman writing in an exercise book while holding a baby. Culture as a theme got the largest grouping of over 1,000 images, the first few of which were primarily folk dancers and musicians. UNESCO plans on making rights and reproductions information available to facilitate ordering; currently an email address is provided for those interested in using the images in publications. [DS][Back to Contents]

Pulitzer and Peabody Awards
2000 Pulitzer Prizes [.pdf]http://www.pulitzer.org/2000/2000.html
The Pulitzer Prizeshttp://www.pulitzer.org/
59th Annual Peabody Award Winnershttp://www.peabody.uga.edu/news/pressreleases/pressrelease.asp?ID=38
The Pulitzer Prize Board recently presented the 2000 Pulitzer Prizes for achievements in American journalism, letters, drama, and music. A list of the winners and their citations, the finalists, links to the works (many will not be available until this summer), short biographies, and lists of jurors are available at the site, along with official press releases. The main Pulitzer site offers a searchable archive and interactive timeline of all winners since 1917. The full texts of winning journalism entries for 1995-1999, including photographs and cartoons, are also provided. The Peabody Awards, which recognize "distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by radio and television networks, stations, producing organizations, cable television organizations and individuals," were also recently announced. At the site, users can view the full list of winners and read the official press release. [MD][Back to Contents]

Great American Speeches [RealPlayer, Shockwave]http://www.pbs.org/greatspeeches/
This new companion site from PBS offers an excellent collection of speeches, some with audio and video clips, from many of the nation's "most influential and poignant speakers of the recorded age." In the Speech Archives, users will find a timeline of significant 20th-century events interspersed with the texts of over 90 speeches, some of which also offer background and audio or video clips. Additional sections of the site include numerous activities for students: two quizzes in the American History Challenge, Pop-Up Trivia, A Wordsmith Challenge, Critics' Corner and Could You be a Politician? which allows visitors to try their hand at reading a speech off of a teleprompter. [MD][Back to Contents]

MP3Lit.com [MP3, RealPlayer]http://www.mp3lit.com/
Created as a vehicle for writers and publishers to distribute their recorded work directly to the public, this site allows visitors to sample a wide variety of writers's works, as read by themselves. These selections are organized into a number of channels: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biography, Poetry, Self-Help, and Loudmouth (reader-submitted recordings). Most of the sections are quite deep, with the recent additions listed first and brief biographical notes provided for each author. Additional content includes a list of the top 20 downloads, weekly updated audio selections from The New Yorker, a message board, and a listing of live events. Users can also subscribe to a free email list that notifies them of new additions and upcoming live events. While a commercial site, MP3Lit.com collectively offers hours of free content and allows users to listen to their favorite (old and new) writing in the author's own words. At the time of writing, some highlights include J.R.R. Tolkien reading from The Two Towers, Adrienne Rich reading "Diving into the Wreck," and some (darkly) humorous clips from The Onion's Our Dumb Century.[MD][Back to Contents]

International Trafficking In Women To The United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime [.pdf]http://www.odci.gov/csi/monograph/women/trafficking.pdf
This recently released, 70-page report from the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) reveals that as many as 50,000 women and children from Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe are trafficked to the United States each year. Brought in primarily by small crime rings and "loosely connected criminal networks," they are forced to work as prostitutes, servants, and laborers in all regions of the country. The report offers background on trafficking methods and perpetrators, the issues and challenges involved in combatting trafficking, and some suggestions for policymakers. The full text of the report is available in .pdf format at the CSI site. [MD][Back to Contents]

US EPA Earth Day 2000 [.pdf]http://www.epa.gov/earthday/
Thirty years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was born with Earth Day. To celebrate this anniversary, the EPA has created this modest new site, which lists EPA-sponsored Earth Day events around the country and offers a history of Earth Day, and a number of publications, links, and other resources for observing Earth Day. In addition, the site links to a state-by-state listing of local events. A good place to begin looking for information on where and how to celebrate Earth Day 2000. [MD][Back to Contents]

National Poetry Monthhttp://www.poets.org/npm/npmfrmst.htm
April 2000 marks the fifth occurrence of National Poetry Month, the month-long celebration of poetry sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. The event "brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture." This year's celebration features public service announcements screened at over 1,800 cinemas nationwide, a series of discussions and lectures about American poetry in the 20th century, and numerous poetry readings across the country, to name just a few of the many events described in the press release available at the site. The site itself offers tip sheets for teachers, librarians, and booksellers who seek ways to participate in National Poetry Month, lists of useful poetry contacts and poetry bestsellers, and a searchable calendar of events. Visitors can also view highlights from past National Poetry Months, see a list of curren poetry bestsellers, and sign up to receive a special National Poetry Month poem each week day for the rest of April from Poetry Daily.[SW][Back to Contents]

AOL Instant Messenger 4.0 (AIM)http://www.aol.com/aim/
The newest version of the extremely popular America Online (AOL) Instant Messenger (free to all users, not just AOL members) includes the ability to share photos, pictures, sounds; and Buddy, Stock, and E-mail Alerts. As with previous versions, AIM 4.0 alerts users when their "Buddies" are online and allows them to send and receive messages instantly, as well as conduct live conversations online. AOL Instant Messenger 4.0 is available in both Windows and Mac formats, but please note that it is in preview release for the Mac. [MD][Back to Contents]

TechToolhttp://www.micromat.com/
Well known for its utility and ease of use, this OS 9-savvy program can scan your system resources, zap your machine's PRAM, and optimize your Mac for improved CPU performance. TechTool also provides information on hours of use and date of manufacture. TechTool is offered in two versions: a freeware TechTool and TechTool Pro. The Pro version ($97) boasts many of the same software and hardware maintenance features as Norton Utilities, a notable exception being the Wipe Info function. TechTool Pro also offers comprehensive testing of both hardware and software system components. Nonetheless, the basic TechTool application remains the standard for such routine maintenance tasks as zapping PRAM and deleting and rebuilding desktop files. Both versions of TechTool are available on micromat's Website. TechTool requires System 7.0 or above. [AF][Back to Contents]

Swimming With Sharks -- CNEThttp://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-1579817-0.html?tag=st.cn.1.tlpg.1005-201-15 79817
This new special report from CNET offers an in-depth analysis of the future of streaming media. This week marks the fifth anniversary of the introduction of RealNetworks's RealAudio software for Web streaming, a key technology for the dissemination of multimedia content online. As this three-part collection of reports reveals, however, all is not rosy at RealNetworks's headquarters in Seattle. The company has recently found itself in unexpectedly stiff competition with Microsoft, which has made significant inroads into the streaming and multimedia technologies market with its Windows Media Player. Some analysts see ominous parallels with the early days of the browser wars and worry that RealNetwork might "get Netscaped." The nine stories offered in this report provide background, analysis, commentary, and a look into the future of streaming media technology. [MD][Back to Contents]

Users can begin exploring this topic with the Peru Election 2000 Website, created by the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University. The site offers information on Peru's electoral process, candidates, parties, law, breaking news, and links to national news. Spanish speakers can also visit both the official Elections 2000 site of Peru's National Electoral Process Office (ONPE) and Eleccionesperu.com. The Miami Herald's Peru section offers a number of current and archived stories on the election, while last night's PBS NewsHour featured a background report and dialogue with three experts on Peruvian politics. The New York Times (free registration required) offers an interesting profile of Toledo with numerous links to related reports. Editorials on the election can be found at the Washington Post, the Houston Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times.[MD][Back to Contents]

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Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-2000. The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

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The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout